The side was hamstrung with no fewer then five of the team pulling out at short notice.

This led to some players being used out of their normal positions and also meant call-ups for Owen Flinn, Jake Cunningham and Daniel Bradford Jones.

When the sides met last month the North Devon side had registered a half century of points and so the Cockles went into this game with some degree of trepidation!

The opening 20 minutes was very even with the only score being a penalty for Torrington.

The Exmouth forwards won a lot of good ball for scrum-half Aaron Conway, who with fly-half Flinn, used the ball well to keep Torrington pegged back inside their 22-line.

A slippery ball made for a greater number of handling errors than usual with knock-ons a hazard close to the respective try lines!

Exmouth turned down a pair of kickable penalties, but on the stroke of half time, Flinn stepped up and slotted a beauty to send the sides into the break all square at 3-3.

In the second half Exmouth enjoyed a measure of good fortune when the wind dropped. Torrington attacked, but the Cockles defence was solid.

At the other end the home side created two good chances, and made the most of both! The Cockles forwards, led by the impressive Conway, drove up the field for Simon Hartery to score an unconverted try.

The last move of the game was a line out to Torrington on the halfway line.

Seb Opie stole the line out ball and it was moved quickly to Paul Bright who broke a brace of tackles on his way to the 22 where he threw a splendid 10-metre pass to Brad Neilson who showed clean set of heels to the Torrington defence before crossing in the corner to complete the scoring and leave the Cockles 13-3 winners.

Harry Turner, playing out of position at prop, and Jake Cunningham on the final, both put in fabulous shifts, the latter in only hiss second game this season.